Paris (AFP)
The France handball team has ideally started its season by winning 31-27 against defending world and Olympic champions Denmark on Thursday night in Aarhus for their first game of the season in the Golden League friendly. .
The victory allowed Didier Dinart's men to gain confidence by beating Danes at home who had easily eliminated them in the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup in January.
"It's never trivial to beat Denmark on the floor, there was a lot of commitment and that's how we won the game, we got them in. It's a good first match , now it will be necessary to confirm ", reacted Luka Karabatic at the microphone of Bein Sport.
The Golden League matches serve as preparation before the big meetings of a particularly dense season, between the Euro-2020 in January and the Olympic Games this summer, for which the Blues are not yet qualified.
After a rough start to the game, where they never led and conceded the goals (10 in 17 minutes), the Blues finally took the advantage for the first time in the 20th minute.
Didier Dinart took the opportunity to introduce his new rookie, Elohim Prandi, allowing the prodigy of the 21-year-old U21 world champion in June to score his first goal with the big boys a few minutes later thanks to a powerful shot from afar.
The Danes finally took the lead at the end of the first period to lead 15-14 at the break, relying on a trio of Imperial scorers, consisting of Rasmus Lauge Schmidt, Hans Lindberg and Michael Damgaard.
The French and Danes then shot for the second half, until the Blues finally took the advantage in the last ten minutes, with a superb action between Nikola Karabatic, who deceived the Danish defense, and Valentin Porte, who received the ball before sending it to the back of the net.
The French will meet Aalborg Spain Saturday, who beat Norway 28-27, for the final of this first round of the friendly tournament.
© 2019 AFP